Land Sags Amid Irrigation Pumping

From 2008 to 2010, pumping resulted in groundwater-level declines approaching historical lows and also renewed compaction. This has reduced the flow capacity of irrigation canals and resulted in structural damage totaling millions of dollars.

The Bureau of Land Reclamation commissioned the report ahead of investing as much as $800 million to perform restoration along the San Joaquin River. "We may have the least [groundwater regulation] of any state," Felicia Marcus, head of the State Water Resources Control Board, tells E&E. "It's probably a tie with Texas at the state level."